The Level Shifter Board is designed to be an interface for I2C or SMBus signals between devices with different VDD voltages. It contains two independent level-shifter circuits, with a common ground. The circuits utilize Fairchild BSS138 N-Channel Logic Level Enhancement Mode Field Effect Transistors.

With this board, you can level shift two different I2C pairs with different high and low voltages for each I2C pair.

Supported voltage levels are 1.8V, 3.3V and 5V. You can connect a 5V device to a 3.3V device or to a 1.8V device; or connect a 3.3V device to a 1.8V device; or connect two higher-voltage devices to two lower-voltage devices in any combination. You also can connect a single higher-voltage device to two lower-voltage devices, e.g. connect a 5V device to both a 3.3V device and a 1.8V device at the same time. See the User Manual for wiring diagrams.

Pins on the board allow you to connect using standard jumper wires. The board comes bundled with eight additional header pins that you can install into the center area's test points if desired.

Level Shifter Board Resources

Connect multiple Schmartboards together!

Every Schmartboard has small notches along its sides which allow you to connect any number of them together in any combination. Purchase a set of the Mechanical Bridge Interconnects available in the options below if you want to be able to combine your Schmartboards.